Split Thump: Oakley Still Making Jerk-Ass MP3 Player Sunglasses

The Oakley Thump was never an awful idea—stashing an MP3 player in a set of sunglasses makes some sense. They’re already on your head, right next to your ears… But they’ve an obvious downside, too: you have to have your sunglasses on any time you want to listen to music. That alone should be enough to convince Oakley to price them as a niche oddity, perfect for landscapers and vampire hunters.

But they’re still selling them for ridiculous prices! The new “Split Thump,” which isn’t quite out yet, is $400 for a 2GB player. Since sunglasses are basically disposable goods and should never be sold for more than $20—even sunglasses manufactured from “O Matter” and “Plutonite” with “High Definition Optics”—that puts the MP3 player at around $380 by my estimation. And a 2GB MP3 player is worth about, oh… $50 these days (and that’s with a strong tailwind.)

On the upside, these Thumps don’t look quite as embarrassing as the previous models. That’s something.

7 Responses to Split Thump: Oakley Still Making Jerk-Ass MP3 Player Sunglasses

I beg to differ, some sunglasses are worth more than $20–just not the stuff at the mall kiosk–those things are $5/dozen in Santee Alley if you know where to look. Oakleys used to be of decent quality, but since they’ve started to make their stuff in China, the materials have been complete crap–rubbing alcohol will ruin the finish, which, I can tell you from extremely long experience dealing with glasses, never happens. Except with new Oakleys.

The various Thumps have been really stupid ideas from the beginning. I appreciate that they’re trying to unify electronics into wearable devices, but the execution really, really sucks, and the price is ridiculously high–hello iPod and mall shades! About the only thing I can actually see a non-fatally-lame person using them for is jogging, except that wearing the damn things more or less makes you fatally lame.

Uh, I should say something nice, too: The sound quality is sort of decent.

I’m with Hicks. I live in the tropics and have always bought half-decent sunglasses, but I’m using Maui Jims now and they make everything look so much better – less saturated, more vivid. I wouldn’t be without them at $190.

I’ve been told that these are actually quite useful for skiiers and snowboarders. You have to wear sunglasses pretty much all the time on the slopes anyway, and the lack of a dangling cord to get in the way is a very good thing.

$400 is still retarded, but that’s par for the course when it comes to ski wear.